New plan intended to help traffic flow after football games

September 26, 2013

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - With the opening of the new U.S. Highway 231 corridor, Purdue University Police and the Purdue Athletics Department have worked together to develop a traffic plan intended to balance Boilermaker football traffic using both local streets and the new 231 corridor after games at Ross-Ade Stadium.

"The traffic plan will help traffic flow in all directions," Purdue police Chief John Cox said. "Fans need to understand while these routes are designed to promote efficient traffic flow, emergency situations such as a traffic crash, medical emergency, bad weather, etc., may cause police to reroute postgame traffic away from the preferred traffic routes advertised to fans."

A new website, http://tinyurl.com/purduefbparking , shows where parking lots are located and what uggested routes to take exiting the campus area from some of the largest lots - the D, S, Gold and Black lots. Preferred routes for more lots will be added over time, and developers welcome feedback for suggestions to the site.

In addition, more electronic message boards, putting motorists in the correct lanes and giving better guidance at intersections where police are directing traffic, will be placed.

Part of the new strategy will be tried in the pay parking lot at the corner of 3rd Street and McCormick Road. Fans entering the Gold Lot at the intramural fields across from Hillenbrand Hall for Saturday's Homecoming game against Northern Illinois will be given a paper with a QR code. They can scan the code on their smart phone, and it will give them the suggested route to leave the area.

"Right now, we're going to see how they work," Cox said. "If this pilot project works, the hope is next year when people order their permits to park in the lots, the permits will have the QR code on them."

In addition to Purdue Athletics, Purdue police also collaborated with Purdue Physical Facilities; Purdue Office of Public Affairs; and Darcy Bullock, professor of civil engineering and director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, to develop the new strategies.